Poor review of Hertz Rental Car service at Kalamazoo airport goes national

FILE - This May 9, 2011 file photo shows customers waiting in line at a Hertz rental car counter at San Jose International Airport in San Jose, Calif. Car rental agencies sometimes don't have enough cars to meet the demand. If there are no cars left at its airport rental facility, Hertz will let customers rent from a competitor and pay the difference, or pay for a cab to and from your hotel. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, file)

PORTAGE, MI – Employees at the Hertz Car Rental service at Kalamazoo
Battle Creek International Airport are not sweating a poor review being
published by news publications across the country.

The article has been published by Bloomberg Businessweek, The Huffington Post and The Boston Globe.

Mayerowitz arrived to Kalamazoo only to find the rental car he reserved would not be honored because the rental car service was out of
cars. Hertz offered to pay for a car from another service, but that didn't
solve his problem.

"Everybody else in Kalamazoo was out of cars and Hertz said
it would be days until they got more vehicles," Mayerowitz wrote. "Luckily, the
airport in Grand Rapids, Mich. — 58 miles (93 kilometers) away — did have some
cars available. An hour and $150 cab ride later, I was finally in a car."

Mayerowitz reported that Hertz took $150 off his bill and
gave him a voucher. He also wrote the lack of rental car service cancellation fees
could have been the root problem.

Ron Deboc, branch manager for Hertz rental car service at
the Kalamazoo Airport, confirmed that the branch does not issue penalty fees if
someone reserves a car and doesn't pick it up but said that wasn't the problem.

"I remember the reason we didn't have the car was because Chicago
had a train derailment, it made our reservations quadruple on a Saturday, which
are usually slow," Deboc said. "It was a horrible situation that we couldn't
plan for and other rental locations were in the same predicament."

Deboc, who has worked at Hertz for more than a year, said
the instance marks the first time he seen his branch pay for a customer's cab.

"It was an unfortunate situation, it doesn't happen a lot,"
Deboc said. "We took
good care of him and we didn't have a vehicle available."